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2012-12-24 - Oddness in Otherworld: Saving Christmas!
The call had been sent out to Pete at the Avengers Academy, Superboy letting him know that he's secured a ride, and to get the crew together and meet him in Central Park. One of the larger clearings in Central Park finds itself home to a T-shaped jet of clearly advanced design. Being on a superhero team has it's perks. Conner, for his part, is currently seated, in full costume, on the nose of the plane, throwing a stick at a speed fast enough that it turns into a blur, only to be intercepted by a white blur that, on the return trip, resolves into Krypto, tail wagging. They've attracted some onlookers. It's one of the more unusual groups that assembled to save Christmas outside of a Tim Burton movie as the Santa Rescue Team gathers itself. Their target, the North Pole and to Otherworld to save the Fat Man. The sound of a motorcycle can be heard as Blade parks and climbs off his bike. He avoids the people that have come to watch the half kryptonian and the dog and walks right up to the jet that Superboy is seated on. He comments as he checks the ammo in the machine gun pistols riding on each hip. "You like drawing attention to yourself, don't you, kid?" "Look, I had to put it down somewhere we could all get to," Kon says, looking over towards Blade. "This..." he looks around. "Okay, yeah, drew some attention, but you should see me when I'm actually trying." Rex Leech is nowhere to be seen. He considers Blade for a moment as Krypto floats closer to sniff. "You wouldn't happen to know how to fly a jet, would you?" In total fairness, Krypto probably could. But the supernaturally intelligent dog can do about everything. And so the rag tag team of adventurers assembles then over in Central Park. A homeless person watches over at the group, stares, and empties out his bottle of moonshine on the ground. Blade looks at the super dog and bares his teeth at it, but doesn't make any sudden movements. The thing could rip him apart after all. Then, he answers Conner's question. "Yes." Always a man of few words, he then moves towards the entrance to the jet. "Wisdom will be along shortly, I suppose. Now get down from there. People are staring..and I hate being stared at." Kon hops down from the nose of the plane, digging into a pocket and poking at something until a ramp lowers, granting entrance to the jet. "Good, glad one of us can," he says, clicking his tongue a couple times. "Come on, boy," he says, gesturing for the dog to follow as he walks up into the jet. Krypto gets his sniffs, and floats after Superboy. "Quiet and dangerous isn't with you today?" Blade shakes his head. "Someone has to keep the vamp population down while I'm away. Besides, I didn't think my partner would be up for this. Though they may show up still." He shrugs. "I'm not up for this..but Wisdom and I go back. Way back. If he needs somebody to watch his back...I'm the one." He moves towards the cockpit and settles into the pilot's chair. "High-tech mumbo jumbo. I remember when you had to twirl the stupid propellor by hand..." He grumbles to himself, not really aware that Conner could hear it. It's time to go. And to save Santa! The group arrays over in the T-Jet to blast off up and towards the NOrth Pole, and from there to go to Otherworld. "How old /are/ you?" Conner asks while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. "And, uh, sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop but..." he taps his ears, "Kryptonian hearing, I hear at least as well as you do, judging by you flinching when I called Krypto the last time. He glances over Blade's shoulder. "I think that's the throttle." Blade waves a hand at Kon. "I got it, I got it." He powers the engines and then begins a pre-flight checklist. He sighs heavily, answering his question, sort of. "Some days, too old. And other days, old enough. Don't sweat it..I'm used to working with people who are superhuman. Buckle down, kid. From what I can tell this thing is pretty fast." He pauses. "Though I've never heard of a kryptonian until recently." He doesn't comment any more about it, though. He pauses a few extra minutes in case his partner changed her mind about joining him. Speak of the Devil and he shall appear, think about Kaoru, and so to shall she. Its unclear which of the three gathered would notice Kaoru first, be it Blade with his sence of smell, or Kon with his sense of hearing, but soon the White Fox did appear, darting from tree to tree in the park as silent as a ninja. As they land next to blade, the simply rest a hand on his arm in greeting, before nodding to the others. Neither. It's actually Krypto, who lets out a little whine, lifting his head, nose pointing towards White Fox as she approaches, drawing Conner's attention. After all, one heartbeat is pretty much the same as any other. He nods to her as she steps into the jet and gestures her towards one of the seats. One the full crew's arrived and seated, he finds a seat of his own, letting Krypto take a rare stint as a lap dog as the young man wraps his arms around the dog to hold them in place. "Ready when you are, sir." Blade glances up at the contact to his arm and nods. "Good then." He closes the hatch and powers up the ship, lifting off and then retracting the landing gear. "Everyone hold on." The coordinates were simple. He simply pointed the ship north and once they were high enough, eased the throttle forwards. As the plane zips towards the North Pole, doing a sub-orbital hop to get there quicker, as they reentered the atmosphere, a big red alert began blaring. Over on the ground, assuming Superboy used his telescopic vision, he would see a group of.. Heavy flak turrets beginning to draw a bead on them! When had Santa's Workshop been fortified with heayv anti aircraft defenses!? Blade frowns at the console. "Shit." He mutters under his breath when the message and the warning siren. "Hold on!" He attempts to being evasive maneuvers, but there's only so much he can do. He's not used to flying this type of aircraft yet. "Uh..we may have to bail out." "Ah uh, no way," Superboy says, undoing his seatbelt and rising to his feet. "We are not crashing the T-jet my first time borrowing it." He looks to Blade. "Land it, we'll deal with the missiles." He hits the button and the hatch swings open, a light vacuum effect as the pressures equalize, carrying Superboy and Krypto out with it. An instant later, two blurs, one multicolored, one red and white appear. The red and white, the faster of the two, tears through a row of missiles, weaving to intercept, leaving a trail of explosions in their wake, thudding like a nearby car with it's bass up too loud. One gets through, only to be intercepted by the multi-colored blur, which resolves into Superboy as he turns, changing the missile's trajectory into a broad U-turn, sending it away from the jet, the projectile starting steam against the snow as it flies away. Up ahead, they would see a Fortress of Doom. Cheery Doom, admittedly. Giant cresting green and purple spires, surrounded by massive skulls with red hats upon them. Alarms were hooting from Santa's workshop then as what seemed to be off in the distance elves wearing paramilitary outfits were scrambling then, even as Krypto played 'catch' over with the high explosives. Pete Wisdom adjusts his goggles and pulls the fur lining of his winter wear closer. Missiles? Support fire! Leaning out (only so far mind you), he throws volley after volley of bright orange hot-knives, using them like flares or to destroy some missiles outright. The Fox was silent as she moved about the cabin, though as the hatch opens, her robes begin to whip about, causing a loud grunt. Her sword blade taking off the excess lengths of fabric to prevent being sucked out of the cabin. Moving up to the cockpit, she actually speaks "What do you want me to do?" simple enough of a question, that black blade almost shivering in her hand. Blade grunts. "Kid's got guts. The dog too." He banks around, looking for a place to land far enough from the action that they don't get shot down immediately while Kon and Krypto deal with the missiles. He replies to Fox. "Strap yourself in. I'm closing the hatch and landing while the kid and the dog keep them busy." He chuckles under his breath before saying loudly. "Reminds you of the old days, eh Wisdom?" He begins his decent, aiming for a patch of ice that may act as a runway. Since it worked so well for Pete, Krypto decides to give it a try. Every so often, twin lances of red emit from the red and white blur, blowing up some missile the dog couldn't get close enough to. Conner uses more traditional methods, either redirecting the missiles to fly off towards whatever Krypto superheats or, when that takes too long, actually punching the missiles, the fuselage crumpling under his fist before exploding, throwing him free, leaving him slightly more blackened each time. Being outside the ship, it's probably impossible for most of the group to hear him, but he calls out a command. "Get the launchers, boy!" Krypto turns from biting one of the missiles in half and zooms down towards the missile launchers down below, eyes glowing red. Pete is popping out of the side of the craft and tossing exploding blades in sub arctic altitudes, and it /works/! The missiles fly over to the side, and one might wonder how often he and Blade had teamed up against machine gun toting elves defending an arctic stronghold of doom before! The elves scrambled away from the launchers as the T-Jet went down, having a clear space to land as a pair of.. Giant cheerful looking parade ground Nutcracker mecha came out, spraying machine gun fire! "Queen's knickers!" exclaimed Pete. "Pooch's got laser eyes, too! Bloody hell, he's some kind of experiment, right? I want laser eyes and flight and invulnerability, dammit," he complained as he still peppered the sky with tiny shards of solidified heat. Unfortunately their range was only so far, so he couldn't quite get to the launchers. But the hatch is closing, so he needs to strap in. And in he straps, buckling tight. Pete, unlike the vast majority of his adventuring companions, is relatively squishy, or crunchy. Hurt is bad. Not to mention, the Nutcracker artillery. "Bollocks." Kaoru hissed behind that mask of hers, her eye narrowing and looking around. "This is no good" she mumbled, realising her trademark silence was not helping any. Shifting slightly on her feet, the blade on her hand grew longer, fatter. The blade now clearly intended for two handed use as she rest it on her shoulder, "We need to close in." she said looking to Blade. "Close enough for a sword" she was smiling behind the mask, though no one could likely tell, except perhaps blade who had gotten used to her by this point. Blade answers Kaoru. "Not an option. This is the best we got. I told you to undergo firearm training..and you rely too much on that damned sword. Part of doing what we do is having the ability to adapt..or die." He brings the plane to a stop just as the mecha come out towards them. Opening the hatch, he unbuckles himself and draws the pair of machine gun pistols on his thighs. "We're going in hot. I've got point." As soon as he exits, he begins firing. Swarming over towards Blade, appearing out of puffs of smoke were a group of.. Small, red furred looking demons with great big white goggly eyes. THey cackled in cacophony, a high pitched wail as they went to swarm towards Blade at surprising speed, "ELMO DEMANDS THE SOULS OF THE UNWORTHY!" Over towards Karou, the Nutcracker Artillery began firing siege cannons, the eruption of machine guns followed by twenty pounders that clearly weren't firing nuts blasting over towards the katana armed girl! For Mister Wisdom, whipping around appeared a trio of.. Stylish looking demons, with awesome black hair and wearing zoot suits, each drawing a long wicked looking blade and putting on sunglasses, speaking in unison, "Mister Wisom, we welcome you.. TO DIE." As Kon-El zipped along the ground, there was a puff of smoke, and out appeared.. Three elderly, infernal looking Mrs. Claus', wearing hard red leather and with glowing firey magical whips lashing towards him, calling out, "We know you've been naughty, we know you've been nice. NOw give us your soul or we'll slash you something slice!" With the jet getting closer, there's fewer missiles coming towards it. Even fewer as the elves scurry away just in time for Krypto to start doing some serious damage. The only difference between watching a poorly behaved dog released on a chew toy is that Krypto doesn't actually shake the launchers around in his mouth. He just rips bits off and throws them aside. Kon flies past the launchers, scooping up a group of the elves with his telekinesis as he impacts, dropping them into a snow bank far enough away to keep them out of the fight for a while. And then evil Mrs. Claus shows up. "This is so wrong," he says, the soot from the myriad explosions having left his costume and skin darkened significantly as he weaves and ducks out of the way of the whips. Poor Krypto, worst of all! Evil Rudolph's twisted thrall! Krypto was now faced over with a rocket powered RUdolph chasing after him TOp Gun style, firing magical bolts of firey DOOM from his nose! Kaoru snickered behind her mask as she darts out of the vessel. Her feet touch the ground and she blinks out of existence, only to appear much closer to the mecha. Her blade tip sparking as she dragged it up, pulling it into a pair of weapons, just before the hail of machine-gun fire hit. Shards of metal flying away from her as she deflected or dodged them, though its the 20 pound cannons that get her attention. The Fox was darting along the ground looking for any kind of defensive position to duck behind before trying to scale these colossal nutcrackers, but as she hears the thumping boom, she spins around and brings her blade down hard in front of her, splitting the first one in twain, both halves passing just along side her before impacting the ground with a massive boom, sending debris everywhere. Darting behind one of those massive Candy Canes, The Fox grunted, pulling a tiny piece of metal from her shoulder and taking a moment to focus. "Blade! Gimme a distraction!" she cried out. When challenged, Wisdom unbuckled his harness and stood up. Brushing his sleeves, he adjusted his fur-lined collar. His left hand flexed, hot-knives sprouting out to full two feet, one from each fingertip. With his right, he calmly unholstered his P99 and started firing at the middle one's sunglasses. Blade is in his normal attire, complete with sunglasses. When Kaoru asks for a distraction, he pulls a grenade from the confines of his coat. It lands near one of the mecha, blowing snow up all around it. Blade then zig-zags at super speed, using his vampiric abilities to keep the Elmos from getting a good target lock on him. In the meantime, his pistols bark and erupt fire, sending iron cased bullets into his targets. There is a fanged smirk on his face. "Only thing that would make this better, is if it were purple dinosaurs instead. I hate that bastard." Speak and ye shall receive. As Blade zigged and zagged through the swarm of flying red furballs, he stood face to face with a trio of fluff purple dinosaurs, about his own height. Breathing fire, they chanted, "I hate you, you love me, we're your condemned family! With a great big hug and DOOM from me to you, don't you say I hate you too!" All the while the remaining Elmos tried to blast after him! The resulting snowbank was enough now for Kaoru to have a moment of cover. The large looking Nutcracker mecha were firing machine guns from their fingers, and then sprouting from each one's mouth was a large looking cannon popping out a la Babes in Toyland meets Home Alone, firing at her as she evaded and charged through them! The Mrs. Clauses called out to Kon, "We know when you're sleeping, we know when you're awake, we know if you've been good or bad, so be good for goodness snake!" Magical whips snaking, slashing, switching through the air as they unloaded over at him, and he was forced to go on the defensive from the trio! And Krypto was being busy with dogfighting evil, magical laser beam firing rudolph and probably having the time of his life! And as Pete's shot went through one demon, him vanishing over ot a puff of smoke, one of the remaining two grinned at Pete, "Mister Wisdom, what did your mommy tell you about bringing a gun to a swordfight? But, if you insist." One of them drew out a large looking machine gun, which.. Began firing swords at him. En statacco. Pete Wisdom twisted his wrist, and the hot-knives from his left hand extended, and spun wildly in front of him. They deflected every shot, outright melting a lot of them into nothing. Wisdom kept this up, hoping that, like goons often do, they fire until they're out of ammunition. He can do this all day. But its bleedin' cold. Though he did do one thing... he stepped closer, advancing almost casually, but his eyes started to glow the same bright orange as his hot-knives, gleaming from behind his goggles. You don't talk about Pete Wisdom's mother. The Fox grunted as the grenade goes off, taking that moment to push her self, and Durans limits. Twin Katanas in hand, she darted along, from snowbank to snowbank, crater to crater before darting and leaping. One blade after another, The Fox begins to ascend the side of the Nutcracker, holding on for dear life as it tries to shake her off. "Duran!" she screams, the blades expanding every time they pierced that thick hide, like fishhooks, barbed, and nasty. The tiny girl was nearly to the top as she pulled one blade free, looking for a weak spot in the neck. Hoping to find it. Kon zips this way and that, then vanishes into a nearby snowbank. The plan is revealed when Frosty the Snow Kryptonian pops up behind one of the Mrs. Clauses, places a hand on the small of her back and then, aiming forward and slightly up, hits here with everything his telekinesis can manage. "Thank you for flying Telekinetic Air." Meanwhile, in the skies above, Krypto whines as the heat from the demonic reindeer's attacks actually hurts. Krypto, however, isn't the sort to get scared. He gets angry. A resounding boom can be heard as the canine casually breaks the sound barrier. Let's see how Rocket Rudolph handles. Eventually, the guns that shot swords ran out of swords. And Pete was fire knife to gun that shot swords combat with the pair of devils. Snow melting, hot knives sizzling, sparks flying. Hair bouncing. A slash from Pete had one of them on the defensive, the other charging in right in time for Pete to slash off half of his exaggerated mullet! This being enough of an opening (the mullet acted as a counterbalance, apparently) to have him going tumbling over into another slash and disintegrating! And Evil Mrs. Claus was blasting off again, leaving an infernal old fat woman in red skintight leather shaped imprint in the ground several hundred yards away a la Wile E. And now, Kon was face to face with a creature of the nightmares of children. MISTER FROSTY. Frosty called out towards Kon, "Frosty the SNowman, was alive as he could be! With a stovepipe hat and a corncob pipe, two eyes made out of coal!" Advancing, blasting a flamethrower of liquid snow at Kon-El. "When they put that stovepipe hat upon his head, the magic brought him from the realms of the dead!" Yeah. Stupid magic. And about Mach Five. Was how well Rocket Rudolph Handled. Getting into a speed fight with a SuperDog was probably beyond the design schematics of RUdolph the Rocket Reindeer, and parts fell from the air then, littering towards the ground. Krypto had better get a nice belly rub! And as the Fox rushed up and through the air, advancing towards the Nutcrackers and climbing up one, she was able to see a variety of weak spots that could be stabbed through - namely the cockpit, contained over within the stovepipe hat resting upon it's head. Easily to disable the pilot as well through it! Blade skids to a stop when he sees the purple dinos. A sneer coming over his lips. Seems like the magic in play here was different that what he was used to dealing with. But one thing he learned from working with Dr. Strange is that magic is nothing but another form of energy. And the vampire knew that if they kept trying to physically overcome these things, they would tire out. Well, the others would tire out at any rate. As he runs out of ammo for the guns, he tosses them to the side and draws the blade on his back. With the sword held out to the side, he moves like a black clad ninja towards the purple monstrosity. Using his speed he attempts to get the Elmos to fire at the purple dinosaur as he passes it by to leap into the air and slash at the other two. "Wisdom, we need a plan. Their resources are unlimited...we need to get into that shop!" It might seem to an outside observer that Blade was enjoying himself. But, they were facing an enemy that was empowered by naughtiness, with virtually unlimited resources. With each warped adversary that was destroyed, it could just as easily bring forth another. Blade was right over as he slashed through the Dinosaur of Rhyming Doom, leaving ti a pile of destroyed fluff. They would have to penetrate the enemy's inner sanctum. The Elf Sweatshop. Kon stares at Frosty, his own body still coated in a good layer of camouflaging snow. "Oh, hey, I actually know this one." The snow begins to melt from his face, starting around the eyes, which soon glow red, lances of heat more than hot enough to bring whatever they look at--in this case, Frosty's face--above freezing. "Frosty the snowman, knew the son was hot that day, so I said, 'Run, you've had your fun, before I melt you away,'" he sing-songs. Krypto can do well better than Mach 5, and, when everything starts to fall of the Reindeer, comes in and tackles it from above, driving it into the snow below and swooping in to join in on Kon's fight. Got yer hat! Snarling out, The Fox braced her self against the Shoulder of the giant Nutcracker. Slaming her swordfs together, the woman let them extend back into that massive claymore before swinging it as hard as she could towards that stove pipe hat! Blade launches himself into the Elmos and begins cutting himself a path towards the shop. "Everyone, if you can hear me, don't focus on fighting the magical constructs. Try to get to the shop itself. They can keep producing these things all day if we let them. They're trying to keep us out of there, but we can't let that happen." The cold doesn't seem to touch him at all as he continues fighting. Pete was currently being swarmed by a group of flying Elvii hairpieces, and leaving Blade over in the unfamiliar position of being the one most fluent over in magic and what to do now! The sudden melting of his face and blasting of his hat as Krypto the SuperDog had a new chewtoy had Frosty disintegrating to.. Slush. Kaoru was able to slash her way through the top of the Nutcracker, popping it open like a.. Nut, as it fell to the ground! The group was now able to go to the Inner Sanctum of Evil, the Lair of the Krampus! With Frosty handled, Superboy takes to the air, looking momentarily alarmed by the swarming demonic pompadours. That's totally disrespecting the King. He snatches Blade from his swarm by the back of the dhampir's jacket, the telekinesis keeping him from just slipping free as he loops around to snag Fox in a similar manner. Hands full, he flies into the workshop, leaving Krypto to assist with the pompadours. There is a sudden curse in japanese as Superboy grabs The Fox, her legs kicking several times before she realises whats exactly up. Kon-el, thats what. "Baaaka. Tell me next time!" she yelps while forcing Duran to shrink down, putting him back in his scabard. Blade feels himself take flight and glances up. He growls. "Hey! Little warning next time, kid." After he's dropped off, he says to Kon. "Go get Wisdom and then get back here. I got a feeling we'll need your muscle once we get to Krampus." The Fox immediately begins to yammer at Blade in japanese, pointing franticly once she lands, apparently not having enjoyed the sudden 'flight'. Wisdom, left to the swarm of Elvis hair! At the rate they were going, he was going to come out of it with a banjo! Smashing their way over into the main Elf Sweatshop, they would see legions of elves in chains being guarded over by more elves with whips and machine guns. In front of them, a massive looking beast that looked like a satyr - seeming half man, half goat, a large looking sack on his back from which came muffled moans and wriggles, and at the center of the room a pit of fire. "Heroes. Being naughty and interrupting my work?" The Krampus. "Do you know how hard it is to warn someone when you're moving at about the speed of sound?" Superboy asks the pair. "Sorry, though," he says, setting them down, and stops. "I think you might actually need me now," he confesses, and glances over his shoulder. He can't quite see it, but Krypto hasn't let out a warning yet, so the fight outside seems to be going well. "I think we actually count as the Nice list," he says to The Krampus. Blade growls towards Krampus. "Naughty is relative." He asides to Kon. "Fox and I can hold this lot off until you get back with Wisdom." He pauses, looking over the situation again. "Then again...maybe you should at least send the dog in.." There's a glow from Krampus, "Naughtiness runs rampant! It is tolerated, encouraged! From the smallest acts to the biggest! It shall be stamped out! Now then, stand down, or the fat man will sing!" Suspended over said pit of boiling doom wrapped in unbreakable chain was the fat man himself. Bound and gagged. SANTA. Kaoru winces at seeing the Krampus, "You are one ugly son of a bitch" she says softly, before looking to Blade, "Time to kick in his Kantankerous Plinks? And Bang his bangdoozles yeah?" she joked. Aparently she DOES have a sense of humor. "Dog's stronger than me, Pete'll be fine," Conner says. He looks at Santa hanging over the pit, then back to The Krampus. "You know, I'd put you right at the top of the naughty list, personally. Sending out assassins certainly isn't what I'd call nice." He looks to his companions, and considers, judging the distance between him and the Krampus, looking for whatever mechanism would start Santa's downward trip. Blade deadpans at Fox. "I have no idea what you just said." Looking over the situation, he asides to Kon. "Go for the fat man when we engage Krampus. Once he's safe, kick butt as normal." He sheathes his sword and instead pulls out two iron daggers from the small of his back. "It's time you paid for the naughty you've done, mutherfucka. Take him." With a burst of super speed, Blade moves to attack Mr. Ugly. And let's get it ON! The Krampus went to charge over towards Blade, slinging a giant metal scythe with considerable speed and force then, slashing over at the vampire hunter with the magical weapon then, charging towards the trio to try and slash them to ribbons, "In that case, let's see if I can change your mind over what is good and what is bad." Superboy double-takes a bit as Blade chooses to ignore the hostage crisis entirely, and he launches off, flying across the room towards Santa. The unbreakable chain proves to be just that, though Santa isn't in any danger from the pit with the flier holding him up. The young man tracks the chain, looking for the first thing it's attached to that /isn't/ unbreakable. Pete Wisdom gets inventive. Some magical beastie with a huge goddamn scythe and such... Pete sprouts armor. His coat is set ablaze and falls apart around him, revealing bright orange plates above his torso. Kinda cool, but here's the rub. STEAM. Lots of freakin' steam. At least he still has his belt and trousers on. He reaches back and snaps out a baton. But this here is a special baton, see. Detailing the magical nature of elves and other fae-like creatures, the end segment of the baton is wrought iron, and encasing something in a tiny cross-section cage. The little thing is sort of lumpy, and black. Pete intends to deliver a lump of coal and cold iron to the Naughtiest One Next to Lobo. "Bring it, you long-tongued, one-hoofed, vacuous, toffee-nosed malodorous pervert!" It was strange to see slim, tall Pete lead a charge, mind you. But he was pissed. And glowing bright orange, it was pretty cool! Pete Wisdom had been at the forefront of this nonsense. He had investigated naughty elves, been abused by rampant goat perverts, and had to take cover over in a watering hole for ethereal horses. THe latest indignity, assaulted by evil mullets, had been enough to break lesser men. And so, tossing a huge lump of coal up where the sun don't shine towards the grumpy wumpus, Pete Wisdom did what otherwise might have been impossible. Not with a smile and a twinkle, but with a harangue and bit of British know how that would have done the Chimney Sweeps of London and Ms. Poppins home block proud. With a mighty HEAVE he cleaned the pipes, and the Krumpus went down with a *KABOOM* and a blast of brimstone. OUtside, evil elves squealed as darkness was yanked back to Otherworld, taking with it all sorts of nonsense. In the darkness, the dawn lit. Well, not literally, it was dark for twenty four hours a day this time of year. But dagummit! This time.. Pete Wisdom saved Christmas. Gods bless him. Every one. Blade jumped into melee to attack Krampus when Pete comes in looking all sparkly and badass and does the job in one strike. Blade stops and stares, actually looking impressed for once. He grunts, sheathes his knives, and adjusts his trench coat. He looks over to where Kon has Santa and grunts before looking back at Pete with a questioning expression. The Fox remains silent, though her posture states she is more than a little..grossed out by this. Moving to blade she whispers "What....was that?" Krypto flies in, tail wagging, a remaining pompadour rather well situated on their head, the ears are even in the right spot. This one seems pretty docile, though. Superboy turns his head at the smell of brimstone, and blinks over at Pete. "Wow," he says. "Remind me to call you in as backup more often," he comments, and sets to work freeing the jolly saint. Unbreakable or not, the lock comes open quickly in his hand and he gets to the freeing. "Can one of you guys get the elves free?" Kon-El is able to let Santa down, "Thank you my boy. And htank you all. I'm so sorry.. That you had to see that naughty is not nice." Yes, he's Santa. There's something about him. That twinkle, that smile, that general air of friendliness and ease that might bring a relaxed air even to Blade. Giving a shrug, Wisdom looked at the remains of the bad fae. "Be glad it wasn't a Yule log, you sodding..." and he said a bad word in British. He ran his fingers through his mullet, and cursed once again. He looked at the others, and then down at himself, and sighed. "If I deactivate this armor I'm gonna die of hypothermia, I bleedin' know it." He flicked a plate of heat, and it gave a crystalline clink noise. "Wouldn't happen to have a spare coat, would you, Nicholas?" he asked the jolly old elf. Santa nodded at Pete, "Yes, of course old chap." A twinkle in his eye as he went to pass his own red garment over towards Pete, "Thank you all for coming. And for remembering that there is still Good in the world, for all my brother might bemoan it. But I must ask your help yet again. For while my elves have their raiment ready... Poor Rudolph is in no shape to fly, nor my sled." Blade grumbles. "Don't mention it. Ever." He hooks a thumb towards Conner. "I'm sure the kid and his dog could make your deliveries in time. You have no idea how fast they can fly." The Fox bowed low, but said nothing. Having reverted to her silent self once more. She was glad to be on the Good List, though if only subconsciously. Kon looks over towards Krypto, who has the decency to look a little guilty in his Elvis wig. "That wasn't... the actual Rudolph Krypto took down, was it?" His eyes go wide. "Um... if that was your actual wife I sent flying, I'm sorry." Pete Wisdom turned off his hot-armor, and it dissipated, fading like a bad movie effect. He shrugged the coat on, and tightened the belt tight. "Let the nice lister do the boy scouting. I, meanwhile, will continue to happily sacrifice presents to make sure you're still around, you old git." But he was smiling. Curse that Christmas cheer. There was a shake of Santa's head at Kon-El, "No, thank goodness. Merely something given her form. I cannot thank you enough. That you took after the good one." He smiles over at Kaoru, at Pete, at Blade, at Kon-El, "now, to all of you.. Won't you ride my sleigh tonight? You have all earned yourself as much a boon as I can grant you, once the dreams of children are safely tucked away." Blade raises a brow slowly over his sunglasses. Surely the fat man was making a joke. Him? In a sleigh? Passing out presents? No way, no how, not a chance on your life....is what he was thinking when his mouth said. "Sure, why not?" He blinks..looks at Fox, then at Pete, Kon, then Santa. Grunts. Shrugs. And gives in to the stupid Christmas cheer. Kon lets out a sigh of relief. Lian would kill him if she found out Krypto took down Rudolph. Then part of what Santa said processes and he looks at the jolly old elf. He nods his head. "Me too." He turns to Pete, and just shakes his head a little, smiling. "Kal was right about you," he says, and, at the offer, he turns to the rest of their merr--heroi-- band at Santa's offer, smiling at Blade's response. Pete Wisdom found himself nodding while his mouth refused to open to say something in scathing, grumpy refusal. What!? No! Hell. He'll need a hard egg-nog after this. Kaoru just nodded, saying softly "I am guessing, we all get to be children one more night huh?" she put her weapon away, "Every kids dream to ride with you huh?" There is a smile from Santa, "Yes. For dreams are treasured thing. And there is always an element of truth to them." HE gives a sweeping bow, "For, if you wish upon a star.." The rhyme is almost infectious as the elves draw up a sleigh, a probably very pleased looking Krypto with a pair of reindeer antlers on his head and a glowing button on his nose attached to the front.. Superboy chuckles. "Didn't have much of a childhood myself," he confesses, taking the wig from his dog just as the freed elves come by with the antlers, drawing a big doggy grin from the super powered mutt. "But..." he looks to the others. "I'd probably be pushing my luck if I tried to get you guys to wear the hats, huh?" he says with a grin. Blade stares at Superboy and bares his fangs. Kaoru just chuckles and shakes her head. Superboy chuckles a bit at Blade's reaction. "I'll take that as a yes," he says, turning back to Santa. "You said the sleigh's busted too?" he asks, and considers something. "Actually, I did have one request for you, if I could. They're... well, the person's on the wrong list, but I'm a firm believer in the redemptive power of a little kindness, so do you think we could add a stop?" There's a smile over from Santa, "Of course, my boy. For without kindness, there can be no niceness." He goes on, "Let's go ahead and put another stop on the list then. So where shall we go?" "Gotham," Superboy says. "I imagine you'd know where to find a Ms. Quinzel?" There's a nod from Santa, "Of course. That girl has always been a doll, and I'm glad she's finally managing to start to turn herself around. Even if it's with a nick nack paddy whack and she gives a dog a bone." Kaoru smirked "Wouldn't mind stoping by Japan.." she said "after of course. I'd like to leave flowers for my mother.." she said softly. Superboy gives Kaoru a nod at that, smiling gently. With that, he helps the elves get the T-jet ready for it's trip. Cyborg is probably going to be a little upset at some of the modifications they're making, but Kon will just be sure not to mention them to Lian so he can undo them. The slightly merrier than you'd expect band then climbs in and, with Krypto leading the way, and a little Christmas Magic lending the assist, they're off to make sure Christmas arrives as planned.